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Articles on Health policy

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Policy differences will play a central role in deciding the outcome of the 2016 election. AAP/Joe Castro

Policy primers: what you need to know before election day

Before Australians go to vote on Saturday, The Conversation’s editors have assembled a guide to 11 key policy areas that could swing the vote.
Was Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King, pictured here with shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, right about cuts to bulk-billing payments? Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Election FactCheck: has the Coalition cut bulk-billing for pathology and scans ‘to make patients pay more’?

Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King, said that the government has “cut bulk-billing payments for pathology and diagnostic imaging to make patients pay more”. Is that right?
Although the Coalition is largely associated with this issue, Labor first introduced the Medicare rebate freeze in 2013 as a ‘temporary’ measure. AAP/Joel Carrett

Confused about the Medicare rebate freeze? Here’s what you need to know

Labor will lift the rebate freeze from 2017, while under the Coalition, GPs will be paid the same amount for delivering health services in 2020 as they were in 2014. So what does this mean for patients?
The health sector can learn from other industries that turn to operations research to fix everyday challenges. Anna Jurkovska/Shutterstock

Hospitals don’t need increased funding, they need to make better use of what they’ve got

Fixing the hospital system is not just a matter of more funding. Hospitals need to work smarter, not harder.
The most common reason for choosing private hospitals is shorter waits for elective surgery. Richard Lyons/Shutterstock

Which are better, public or private hospitals?

Around a quarter of people with private health insurance still choose to use the public system. Why?
The Commonwealth is telling the states to fix their own hospital budget problems, as though state governments can simply find savings from other areas. MARCELODLT/Shutterstock

Here’s how to boost hospital funds and end the blame game

Health-care costs are rising, driven by expensive developments in treatments, more demanding populations and rising national wealth. We need to change the financing system to meet this challenge.
Patients often rely on their GP to make the choice of specialist for them through the referral process with little or no discussion of prices. gtfour/Shutterstock

How much?! Seeing private specialists often costs more than you bargained for

Why is it so difficult to find out exactly how much it’s going to cost to have that suspicious mole removed or to be admitted to hospital for that colonoscopy or hip replacement?
A snapshot of 2015: health reviews, Health Check series, thalidomide series, Medicare versus private health insurance. AAP; Shutterstock; Julian Smith/; Dave Hunt/AAP

2015, the year that was: Health + Medicine

This was the year of the health review – mental health care, Medicare, private health insurance, the pharmacy industry … and the list goes on. But how much movement was there on policy?

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